All women shortlists remain a controversial but effective way to improve women’s representation in politics

Rosie Campbell reviews the debates around the use of gender quotas by the Labour Party. She writes that although they are unpopular with many voters (and some sections of the party itself) the evidence continues to suggest that they are an effective way to boost female participation in politics in the short term.

The internal battle within the Labour Party over AWS continues to play out. Veteran MP Austin Mitchell used the occasion of the announcement of his retirement to complain that the influx of women MPs had ‘weakened parliament’. In response women politicians and feminist commentators defended the use of all women shortlists to overcome bias in the parties’ selection processes. Labour constituencies are also divided as to the efficacy and merit of employing AWS. Members of the local Labour Party in Cyon Valley threatened to go on strike if an all women shortlist was imposed on the constituency, but at the other end of the spectrum Cardiff North chose to use an all women shortlist to select their parliamentary candidate.

What does the evidence about candidates selected so far for 2015 tell us about Labour’s continued use of AWS? Of all the 1325 new candidates selected so far to stand in the upcoming general election 485 or 27% are women, but the figures vary considerably by party. In the Labour Party’s retirement seats they have so far selected 21 women out of 31 candidates (68%) compared with 9 women out of 30 (30%) selected by the Conservatives in their retirement seats and 5 women out of 11 (46%) by the Liberal Democrats in retirements seats. Unpopular as they may be with some sectors of the Labour party and with many voters all women shortlists continue to give the Labour party a significant boost in its selection of women candidates in their own safe seats.

The Constitution Unit in the Department of Political Science at University College London is the UK's leading research body on constitutional change.

This blog features regular posts from academics and practitioners covering a wide range of constitutional issues in the UK and overseas. You can navigate by theme and contributor using the menus at the top of this page, and subscribe to receive new posts to your inbox below.

Follow blog via e-mail

Enter your e-mail address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by e-mail.

Join 1,839 other followers

Unit Mailing List: Sign up to receive notifications of of our events, newsletter and publications